Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

glossary

agreement. Delicts (such as accidental damage to property, defa mation, and theft) form a middle category between purely civil actions (e.g., contracts, inheritance) and “public” criminal ones (e.g., treason, riot, forgery). See Chapter 18. Digest . An enormous collection of the writings of earlier jurists, cut-and-pasted together by a team of editors at the direction of the emperor Justinian in the 530’s ad. This is now our principal source for Roman law. Edict. An order of a Roman magistrate. Some of these were ad hoc and temporary, others were standardized and reissued by the new magistrates in each succeeding year. The most important of these was the edict of the urban praetor (“the Edict”), which served as the basis for much of Roman civil law. Emancipation. The freeing of a slave or child from the control of his or her owner/father. Emptio venditio . Literally, “buying selling.” The form of con tract that governed sales. Fideicomissum . A “trust” created by a will. Property was for mally left to one person along with instructions to use it for a particular purpose, normally to pass it on to another per son. The enforceability of a fideicomissum , especially to evade various normal rules of inheritance, varied considerably over time. Filius familias . “Son of a family.” A son of a living father, no matter what his age. (Also filia familias , a similarly situated daughter). Such a person had essentially no private law rights; the father owned all property and could impose punishments more or less at will.

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